Things one middle-aged economist finds interesting

1. A student who scores 1600 on the SAT--two 800s--is referred to as "dialling toll-free."
2. Harvard rejects 25% of its applicants who dial toll-free.
3. At Wesleyan, for the academic year 1999-2000, among the former occupations of the admissions committee were "food-stamp interviewer, resident administrator in a psychiatric halfway house, high-school English teacher, and management trainee at Sears." This illustrates how, says Louis Menand writing in the New Yorker, "Admissions officers . . . tend to be highly interested in, and experienced judges of, character." [Seriously, that's what he wrote.]

Read more here. (Bonus information: Wesleyan has a "Zonker Harris Day," "a day devoted to the celebration of pot smoking.")

Comments

Things about college admissions I had not known:

1. A student who scores 1600 on the SAT--two 800s--is referred to as "dialling toll-free."
2. Harvard rejects 25% of its applicants who dial toll-free.
3. At Wesleyan, for the academic year 1999-2000, among the former occupations of the admissions committee were "food-stamp interviewer, resident administrator in a psychiatric halfway house, high-school English teacher, and management trainee at Sears." This illustrates how, says Louis Menand writing in the New Yorker, "Admissions officers . . . tend to be highly interested in, and experienced judges of, character." [Seriously, that's what he wrote.]

Read more here. (Bonus information: Wesleyan has a "Zonker Harris Day," "a day devoted to the celebration of pot smoking.")